LOS ANGELES – The Maple Leafs average age ticked up half a year in the last three days, despite adding just two players.

Brian Boyle, 32, on Monday. Eric Fehr, 31, yesterday. If you add in late-January waiver claimant and backup goaltender Curtis McElhinney – who is almost 34 – Toronto's average age has gone from 25.7 to 26.5 in the span of a couple months.

So the Leafs are no longer the youngest team in the NHL, especially not with with Arizona, Carolina and Tampa Bay selling their vets. They've fallen to a tie for fifth youngest with Buffalo.

But the experience that comes with age is something the organization values.

It's something that GM Lou Lamoriello and coach Mike Babcock felt they lacked and needed. It certainly sounds like that was the biggest justification for the Leafs maxing out their cap situation to bring in a pair of fourth liners with 20 games to play.

“What I really like about Eric Fehr is he's a really good pro,” Babcock said. “I've known him for a long, long time. He's won a Stanley Cup. He's a good man. Can penalty kill. Can do whatever you need to get done. He's here to be a good influence in the room and be a good pro and ideally some of his habits wear off on other guys. Between him and Boyler I think we really improved that part of our room, which is real important to us.”

The other thing adding Boyle and Fehr gives the Leafs is playoff experience. They're easily 1-2 in the organization in that department, with Boyle at 100 career games and Fehr at 60 after winning the Stanley Cup with the Penguins last year.

In fact, they nearly doubled the Leafs' playoff experience. That's not hard to believe given Toronto's roster had no one with 50-plus career playoff games and 11 players who had zero:

“Not just that,” Babcock said of Fehr's playoff experience. “He played in Washington a long time. He played on real good teams. You get used to winning and you know how to win and you prepare like a winner. You live like a winner. You act like a winner. You do things like a winner. The next thing you know, you're winning. So to me then what happens is that wears off on other people. We want our young guys being around these guys as much as they possibly can.”

Fehr admitted he felt old coming into the Leafs dressing room today, especially when one of the few players he knew was William Nylander. Nylander was 12 years old the last time he and Fehr skated together – back when his father, Michael, played with Fehr in Washington.

“I had a laugh with Nyles here,” Fehr said. “I don't think I've seen him since [he was 12]. It was pretty funny running into him this morning.”

Adding Boyle and Fehr also pushed the Leafs' active roster to 24 players, not counting Connor Carrick, who is on injured reserve. Exceeding the 23-man roster limit is allowed after the deadline, and quite a few teams are doing so in order to give them more depth.

Florida currently has 26 players on its roster. Nashville and Montreal are at 25. And the Leafs are one of six other teams – all of which are pushing for a playoff spot – at 24 players.

But Babcock said the Leafs were “being really careful” not to get ahead of themselves with their trade deadline buying.

“You're trying to acquire things you think you need to help your group grow so that you can be a contender year in and year out,” he said. “That's what we're trying to do.”

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Things to watch for against the Kings tonight:

Fehr isn't playing, and Babcock made it sound like he might have to wait awhile to get in. But Nikita Soshnikov draws in on the fourth line instead of Josh Leivo, likely to improve the Leafs' penalty kill. Morgan Rielly is also expected to be paired with Alexey Marchenko for the first time for a full game, which puts Jake Gardiner with Nikita Zaitsev.

“We practised together,” Rielly said. “We played a couple shifts together [in San Jose]. There shouldn't be any adjustment period here tonight.”

James Mirtle is the editor-in-chief of The Athletic Canada. James spent the previous 12 years as a sportswriter covering hockey with The Globe and Mail and was the founding editor at SB Nation's hockey vertical. He appears regularly on TSN Radio across Canada. Follow James on Twitter @mirtle.